Temple of Heaven
Tuesday, 12th July 2005 by James Turnbull
The Temple of Heaven is a temple of Taoism in Beijing. If you zoom out a little you'll see that the northern section is enclosed in a semi circular wall (representing heaven) while the southern section is within a rectangle (representing earth). The northern part is also higher for the same reason.
To the north is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, which is connected to the Imperial Vault of Heaven by the Vermilion Steps Bridge, or "Sacred Way". You can see that the sacred way is split into two halves, one side for emperors and the other for princes and high officials, although I think tourists now happily walk up either side. The circles to the south of the Imperial Vault of Heaven is the Circular Altar.
Surrounding the Imperial Vault of Heaven is the echo wall, where apparently if you whisper to the wall on one side the sound is echoed right around the wall to the other side, where you can be clearly heard.
Thanks: Feng Wu
Have been Beijing once, but only visit the forbidden city.
I went to this place, it is fantastic. The roof of the temple is a deep, lustrous blue. The Sacred Way is not split quite as described, but there is a narrow, raised strip of marble over which the emperor was transported. The marble strip is a symbolic part of the Forbidden City, which is, in turn, a part of Heaven on Earth. So the emperor could visit the temple without ever touching the earth. The picture doesn’t give you the scale and depth, but the Sacred Way is raised about 20′ so that you are level with the treetops either side, which, are beautiful groves of Persimmon. I must try to rustle up my photos!
Me again! As promised, I’ve dug out the old China photos and here’s 10 pics of the area around the Temple of Heaven
Besides the echo wall, there is another place offering interesting experience which is not known to very many.
If you step on one special piece of marble step at one end of the Sacred Way and clap your hands once, you will clearly hear one echo on top of you. Move one step ahead, clap again and you hear the echo twice. Again, more more step, guess what, you will hear the echo for three times. I have forgot to which end these steps are and could’t find much info on the web either. But I ensure you it is true as I tried it. If you go visit, please make sure you ask for them.
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quero fazer o download disso
I am Chinese, I live in Beijing
hey. i am into a lot of science. i descuver there is a lot of stuff you can learn about nature. and i wish i could be a scientist. so i can be very famous about nature. and i care about it. that’s what i want too be before i go to heaven.
I am not Chinese, and I live in Beijing. I’m taking some of my students to the Temple of Heaven tomorrow, and gathering all the information I can on the internet tonight. My favorite quote so far about the Temple of Heaven is that “you feel like you are in a different world.”
The temple of heaven is for asians that are christians right? what is the percentage for christians in china?